Bellows of the welded type are, typically, made up of a plurality of annular members. The members are often in the form of Belleville washers or springs so that they are essentially frustoconical. Individual members are welded on one side at their inner diameter for attachment to a first adjacent member and are welded on the other side at their outer diameter for attachment to a second adjacent member. The result is a stack of alternately converging and diverging members. The edges or "weld flat" portions of the individual elements are in extremely close contact which becomes closer and more widespread during compression of the bellows. As a result, any small particle (e.g. a few microns) of dirt that becomes trapped during the manufacturing processing can become the site of localized high stress resulting in fatigue failure.